A wide variety of recreation sport boards have been developed for water and snow sports. These recreation sport boards include, for example, water skis, waterski-boards or wake-boards, sail-boards, snow-boards and snow skis. A recreation sport board has binding assemblies mounted to a top surface of the board to retain the feet of a user on the board during normal, intended use. During use the board and binding assemblies are subject to impact forces generated by hitting or landing on bumpy water or snow, and these impact forces are transmitted through the binding assemblies to the feet of the user. At advanced skill levels, very high impact forces are experienced by the athlete in the heels and lower legs when traveling over bumpy water or snow at high speeds, or when landing on the water or snow after performing a high-elevation aerial maneuver. The high impact loads to the heels and lower legs cause heel shock, and repetitious heel shock can fatigue the user and make the ride less enjoyable.
A conventional binding assembly that is mounted to, for example, a waterski-board has a flat, rigid mounting plate that is securely fastened to the top surface of the board, retorted to as the top board surface, and the athlete's foot is securely retained atop the rigid mounting plate by retaining straps or the like. Heel shock is somewhat reduced by providing a resilient foot pad atop the rigid mounting plate and on which the user's foot is placed so as to partially absorb the impact forces transmitted from the board to the binding assembly. The binding assembly further reduces heel shock with a thin layer of impact-absorbing foam that is adhered to the bottom of the rigid mounting plate, such that the foam layer is sandwiched between the rigid mounting plate and the top board surface. This thin foam layer also protects the top surface of the board from being damaged by the rigid mounting plate.
Although the shock from the impact forces transmitted to the user's feet could be greatly reduced by providing a large amount of resilient material between the user's foot and the rigid mounting plate, or between the rigid mounting plate and the board, a significant trade-off occurs between shock attenuation and edge control of the board. When more resilient material is used for increase shock attenuation, edge control is decreased because forces generated by user's foot and leg compress the resilient material and the forces are greatly absorbed before being transmitted to the board. Accordingly, increased edge control from the conventional binding assemblies require less resilient material under the athlete's foot.
In addition, the foam layer between the rigid mounting plate and the board must be relatively, thin to minimize lateral movement of the rigid mounting plate relative to the top board surface and to efficiently transmit user applied forces to the board needed for edge control. Thus, conventional binding assemblies result in a tradeoff between edge control and shock absorption.
Accordingly, heretofore there has not been a binding assembly that provides sufficient shock absorption while enhancing rather than reducing edge control of the recreation sport board.